Robotics (201-24341) - Spring 1999
Course Outline
Introduction to Robotics and Artificial Inteligence
BGU Math & Computer Science Department
General Description and Goals
The ROBOTICS course is primarily for graduate students, open
to undergraduates. It consists of an
introduction to issues in robotics, focusing mainly
on artificial intelligence aspects, and with a limited in-depth
study focusing on the robot-building lab (RBL).
The course includes experimentation on a real mobile robot constructed by teams
of students with the LEGO-based RBL, and on
related software packages. It offers
a chance for doing a small hands-on project in robotics, and a handle
on a possible research topic for graduate students.
Material Covered in Course
Theoretical material covered in course
- The interface between planning and control
- Interface with the environment - sensors and effectors
- Temporal reasoning
- Knowledge based planning
- Planning under uncertainty
- Controlling inference (meta-reasoning)
- Probabilistic Reasoning
- Learning
- Integrated planning and execution
- Path-planning
Practical material (in laboratory sessions):
- Robot Building Laboratory (RBL): interfacing and commands
- RBL: Robot team competition
- The Nomad 200 mobile robot and simulator: introduction
- Controlling a mobile robot
- Sonar sensing
- Map learning experiment, simulated
- Path planning
Syllabus
T. L. Dean and M. P. Wellman: Planning and Control,
Morgan Kaufmann, 1993.
Articles from the research literature (handed out).
Nomad 200 documentation.
RBL documentation
Course Requirements
The course consists of 4 weekly lecture sessions (``hours''), and
one exercise/lab session, the latter to be held as 2 hours
every other week. The course is for 4.5 point credits, and there
will be no final exam. Instead, the requirements are:
Mid-term exams (2, each worth 20%)
The RBL project (40%)
Other assignments (20%)
Prerequisites
Open to Graduate students and
GOOD 3rd year CS or engineering students, or higher.
Prerequisites: Probability, and one elective course related to
robotics, such as logic programming, artificial intelligence
(or another AI course, such as decision making), control theory,
or instructor's permission.
Note to non-CS students: advanced computer literacy is assumed. That is,
if you don't know the programming language (C for the RBL), you are assumed
to be able to catch up on your own.